It should be noted that penalty rates for retail workers will be further reduced by 15% of the base wage rate on 1 July 2019 and 1 July 2020 as per Fair Work Commission 2017 decision.
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label economy. Show all posts
Friday 17 May 2019
Australian economy has grown weaker and workers paypackets leaner under the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government
ABC
News, 11 May
2019:
Australia's "strong
economy" has been the Coalition's mantra throughout the election campaign.
Earlier this month, the
Liberal Party created a meme of a smiling Scott Morrison armed with a
lightsaber and dressed as a Jedi alongside the slogan: "The economy is
strong with this one."
In Treasurer Josh Frydenberg's Budget speech, the
phrase "strong economy" featured 14 times.
And Labor, loathe to
campaign on what it sees as the Coalition's territory, has barely challenged
this proposition.
Yet the evidence
suggests the claim is more rhetoric than reality.
On just about any
measure, the economy is not strong — and any enduring pretensions that it is
have been undermined by no less an authority than the Reserve Bank of Australia
(RBA).
Its latest monetary policy statement has revised
down economic growth for this financial year to just 1.7 per cent — more than
half a percentage point below its previous forecast.
That contradicts
Treasury forecasts in the Budget, which are barely a month old and were
reaffirmed by Treasury even more recently in the pre-election economic and
fiscal outlook.
Wages growth, despite a
recent small pick-up, has been weaker during the past six years than at any time since
World War II.
Home values and
household wealth have plummeted amid one of the biggest property slumps in
Australia's history.
The inflation rate is at a historic low of just 1.3 per
cent and has languished below the Reserve Bank's target range of 2 to
3 per cent for more than three years.
Although employment
growth has been reasonably strong, driven by the public sector and community
services, key sectors that drive the economy are shrinking.
Manufacturing,
construction and retail trade have all shed tens of thousands of jobs over the
past year — the building industry layoffs are a product of a massive slump in
dwelling investment, which the RBA reckons will continue for years.
Some better headline
data mask gloomier realities
Only high rates of
immigration have stopped Australia lapsing into a formal recession.
The continued expansion
— now in its 28th year, the longest period without a recession in recent world
history — disguises a "per capita" recession that is driving down
living standards.
Similarly, an
unemployment rate mired at 5 per cent, which is not high by the standards of
recent decades, disguises the true weakness of the labour market.
More than 13 per cent of
the workforce is underutilised — either unable to secure work at all or the
hours they need — and a disproportionate share of the jobs growth in recent
times has been poor quality: casual and contract jobs in relatively low-wage,
low-productivity sectors.
The Reserve Bank is
betting on the unemployment rate staying where it is, but others are less
optimistic.
Westpac's Bill Evans,
one of the most long-standing and respected market economists, predicts that
developments in the labour market over the next three months will disappoint
the RBA with a "deterioration of the labour market" over the coming six
months and "continued weak inflation".
This downturn in the
economy is largely homegrown — the product of weak wages growth and the
unwinding of an unsustainable property boom that left households saddled with
enormous debts.
If there's also an
external shock, perhaps from a trade war sparked by Donald Trump's tariffs on our largest trading partner
China, it will open up the possibility of a double-whammy.
Yogi Berra, the
legendary US baseball star and coach, famously observed that "it's tough
making predictions, especially about the future", and it's a maxim that's
often born[e] out in economic forecasting.
But you don't need a
crystal ball to realise that whoever forms government after the federal
election will inherit a sluggish economy, not a strong one.
ABC
News, 12 May
2019:
The Reserve Bank's new
line in the sand gets its first big test with the latest reading from the jobs
market this week.
The new line, as set
down in the RBA's latest Statement on Monetary Policy (SOMP),
can be roughly defined as the unemployment rate holding at 5 per cent through
2019 and 2020 before drifting lower.
The persistent
head-winds of low inflation has seemingly blurred, if not blown away, the RBA's
previous markers — parallel lines which were intended to corral inflation
between 2 to 3 per cent for as far as the eye can see, or an economist can
forecast.
Governor Philip Lowe
made it clear a further improvement in the labour market was needed to get the
economy out its rut and back in the groove, growing at its full potential.
No back-tracking on this
one for the RBA. Lower unemployment and underemployment — where workers are
searching for more hours to make ends meet — will soak up the spare capacity
sloshing around the economy, inflation gets back to where the RBA wants it and
GDP grows at its long term trend, or better.
That's still a long way
off, even using the RBA's recently updated and far from pessimistic forecasts......
According to
the Australian
Bureau of Statistics, over the twelve months to the March quarter 2019
the living costs for self–funded retiree households fell by -0.2%, while the
living costs for age pensioner households and other government transfer
recipient households rose by 0.3% and 0.2% respectively. Employed households living
costs remained unchanged over the same time period at 0.1% above CPI.
It should be noted that penalty rates for retail workers will be further reduced by 15% of the base wage rate on 1 July 2019 and 1 July 2020 as per Fair Work Commission 2017 decision.
Labels:
economy,
Finance,
jobs,
Reserve Bank,
under employment,
unemployment,
wages,
welfare recipients
Tuesday 2 April 2019
A federal budget for hopeless optimists was delivered by the Morrison Government on 2 April 2019
https://youtu.be/C64ZC-0Oju4
This was
Australian treasurer and Liberal MP for Kooyong Josh Frydenberg delivering his first
budget speech on 2 April 2019:
Tonight, I announce that
the budget is back in the black and Australia is back on track.
For the first time in 12
years, our nation is again paying its own way….
John Howard and Peter
Costello paid off Labor’s debt. And tonight the Morrison government sets a path
to do it again, without increasing taxes.
This matters because
over the last year the interest bill on the national debt was $18bn.
And this was in a low
interest rate environment.
This is money that could
have built 500 schools or a world-class hospital in each state and territory.
We are reducing the debt
and this interest bill.
Not through higher
taxes, but by responsible budget management and by growing the economy.
In the actual budget papers he asserts that:
Net debt in 2019-20 is
expected to be $361 billion, representing 18 per cent of GDP. By 2022-23, net
debt is expected to decline to $326.1 billion (14.4 per cent of GDP). Net debt
is then projected to be eliminated over the medium term (2029-30)
So whose debt is Frydenberg complaing about and why is the economic furture so suddenly rosy?
At the end of the month in 2013 in which Tony Abbott became Prime Minister of Australia the gross national debt stood at est. $220.67 billion and net national debt was $174.55 billion. At the time net national debt was in the vicinity of 13% of GDP.
By 2 April 2019 the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government had raised the gross national debt to $534.42 billion.
That's more than double the national debt left by the previous Labor federal government.
Frydenberg is predicting that gross national will rise to $627.26
billion by end of June 2019 with net national debt coming in at $373.47 billion and net debt predicted to come in at 19.2% of GDP by end of June.
By 30 June the federal government will have paid $18.15 billion in interest on this debt in the 2018-19 financial year.
I don't know about anyone else but to me it definitely looks as though the Liberal-Nationals Coalition governments have well and truly contribted to the national debt in the last five and a haf years.
According to the 2019-20 Budget that Frydenberg just delivered gross national debt is expected to rise for the next three financial years while at the same time it is hoped that net national debt will decrease.
When it comes to national debt a net decrease in the debt does not always mean the actual government debt is falling - it simply means that the government of the day expects to have enough assets and income to honour the total debt if the entire amount was theoretically called in by the debtors.
However, Frydenberg predicts that both net national debt and interest that the gross debt attracts will fall over the next four financial years, despite federal government expenses increasing and expected tax receipts (including GST receipts) being revised down by $26 billion over those same four years.
Frydenberg also says the Morrison Government will deliver an underlying cash balance of $7.1 billion by 30 June next year even though that underlying cash balance is $4.1 billion in deficit this year. To do that the Treasurer has to pull $11.2 billion out of his back pocket in the next fourteen months.
Months in which it is committed to delivering the cash splash it has included in this pre-election budget.
An ordinary voter like myself has to ask: Where's the money coming from to supposedly get the government books back into the black?
The Morrison Government must be privately asking itself the same question as Budget Statement 7 only gives that government a 70 per cent chance of being able to bring in a $7.1 billion suplus this coming financial year
The Morrison Government must be privately asking itself the same question as Budget Statement 7 only gives that government a 70 per cent chance of being able to bring in a $7.1 billion suplus this coming financial year
Budget 2019-20 papers can be found here.
NOTE:
Only one item in the Morrison Government 2019-20 budget is likely to be passed on 3 April 2019 before the Australian Parliament is dissolved to meet the required timeline to issue writs for the federal election. This means that all the budget promises made by Frydenberg are on the never never and if the Coalition Government wins that election it may change some budget details come 30 June.
NOTE:
Only one item in the Morrison Government 2019-20 budget is likely to be passed on 3 April 2019 before the Australian Parliament is dissolved to meet the required timeline to issue writs for the federal election. This means that all the budget promises made by Frydenberg are on the never never and if the Coalition Government wins that election it may change some budget details come 30 June.
Thursday 14 March 2019
Did Morrison & Co send your chance of getting a decent pay rise up in smoke?
“Brace yourselves Australia — everyday things are
about to cost more, and your chance of a pay rise has gone up in smoke” [News
Corp Journalist David Ross writing
in news,com,au, 8 March 2019]
Well it had
to happen. After five and a half years of an
Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Coalition Government the nation has reached what
is known as a per capita recession.
This hasn’t
occurred since the Howard Government’s last full year in power.
Almost sixty per
cent of Australia’s Gross Domestic Product comes from consumer spending and
five and a half years of deliberate wage suppression by both the federal
government and the business sector means the majority of consumers have little
to spend.
The economy
has been markedly slowing under Scott Morrison’s economic policies, first as
federal treasurer then as prime minister.
Annual growth
has now fallen to just 2.3 per cent according to the Reserve Bank.
This slowing
has a cascade effect.
Labels:
economy,
government policy,
Morrison Government,
wages
Monday 11 March 2019
If as an ordinary worker you feel like you have been financially marching backwards for the last five and a half years then you probably have
“Backing
business generates higher wages, jobs & growth.” [Australian
Treasurer & Liberal MP for Kooyong Josh
Frydenberg, Twitter, 8 March
2019]
Such a confident quote from a Coalition Treasurer in campaign mode - but is it true?
According to the Dept. of Prime Minister & Cabinet/ASIC at the end of the period 30 July 2013 to 31 June 2014, there were est.2.6 million actively trading businesses in Australia and, according to the ABS by the end of 2017-18 there were 2.3 million actively trading businesses in the market sector in Australia.
Despite the Morrison Government alleging that by November 2018 it had created 1.2 million more jobs since September 2013, it's easy enough to see that in January 2019 the seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was only 0.6% lower than it was when the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Coalition Government came to power in September 2013.
Additionally, it would appear that the ratio of unemployed persons to job vacancies in late 2013 was est. 20 unemployed individuals for very 1 job vacancy and by December 2018 this stood at an est. 15.57 unemployed individuals for every 1 job vacancy.
So what about wages growth?
So with little structural damage to our financial institutions or the industry & business sectors, the national economy should be chugging along nicely.
By now ordinary workers should be reaping the rewards for their productivity - as labour input to market sector multifactor productivity increased by 3.0% overall on quality
adjusted hours worked basis in 2017-18 (while capital input only grew by 2.0%).
The biggest labor input increases occurred in Administrative and Support Services (8.2%), Manufacturing (3.8%), Accommodation and Food Services (3.7%), and Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (3.7%).
The biggest labor input increases occurred in Administrative and Support Services (8.2%), Manufacturing (3.8%), Accommodation and Food Services (3.7%), and Professional, Scientific and Technical Services (3.7%).
According to the Australian
Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in the December Quarter 2018; Compensation of
employees increased by 0.9% nationally.
In the Australian Capital Territory the compensation
increase was 2.1%, in Tasmania 1.6%, Queensland 1.5%, Victoria 1.4%, New South Wales
0.7%, and South Australia 0.1%. However compensation growth went backwards in Western
Australia at -0.2% and Northern Territory -0.7%.
Also according to the ABS; The
Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.5 per cent in the December quarter 2018. This followed a rise of
0.4 per cent in the September quarter, a rise of 0.4% in the June quarter and a 0.4% rise in the March quarter 2018.
It doesn't take a genius to see that nationally the effect of that December national compensation increase was actually 0.9% minus 0.5% CPI equalling 0.4% when it came to how far those few dollars in wage increase would stretch the weekly pay packet.
Why is low wages growth occurring? Well according to the Minister for Finance and the Public Service & Liberal Senator for Western Australia Mathias Cormann it is deliberate Morrison Government policy to suppress wages growth.
Why is low wages growth occurring? Well according to the Minister for Finance and the Public Service & Liberal Senator for Western Australia Mathias Cormann it is deliberate Morrison Government policy to suppress wages growth.
The result of this ongoing wages suppression? A continuation of the downward progression of disposable income and rising household debt, as illustrated in this graph from 2015 onwards.Low wage growth is no accident. Watch @MathiasCormann confirm that. pic.twitter.com/z8fGGCO52Z— Australian Unions (@unionsaustralia) March 8, 2019
ABC News, 9 September 2018
|
BACKGROUND
Business Insider, 4 March 2019:
The ABS on Monday (4
March) released its Business Indicators results for December 2018,
which showed trend growth in company gross operating profits at a healthy 9.6
per cent over the year to the December quarter.
Seasonally adjusted,
that figure was even higher, hitting double digits at 10.5 per cent.
The figures were boosted
by a strong performance that quarter, with trend growth up by 0.9 of a
percentage point on the September quarter, or by 0.8 of a percentage
point when seasonally adjusted.
Chief executives and
chief financial officers don’t get bonuses for increasing their companies’
labour costs – so they try not to.
Chairpersons and boards
are not clapped on their collective back by institutional investors for
devoting a greater share of revenue to wages – so they don’t.
And the cumulative
effect of those simple realities is now unavoidable: Years of real, take-home wages
going backwards while corporate profits increased, have meant household
consumption is stalling and taking the economy with it.
Yet such is the myopic
nature of corporate focus, business leaders react with horror to the idea that employees
need a bigger share of the pie.
The business lobby
claims wage increases aren’t possible without productivity trade-offs – but
that’s after the productivity increases of recent years going overwhelmingly to
higher profits.
Quite simply, the key
business lobby groups have little credibility. They claimed reducing penalty
rates would increase employment – it didn’t. They claimed cutting company tax
would increase wages: It hasn’t and it won’t.
Household consumption
accounts for more than half of the economy. According to the ABS, and nicely
reported by Greg Jericho with helpful graphs, real household disposable income per capita
has fallen back to where it was in 2010.
“Average compensation
per employee” grew by only 1.5 per cent in 2018 – an even worse result than the
better-publicised ABS wages index.
It’s only population
growth that’s providing what little retail sales and GDP growth we have….
The Fair Work Commission
(FWC) increased the minimum wage by 3.5 per cent last July – against the
arguments of the business lobby – and by 3.3 per cent in July 2017.
That
increase of 6.8 per cent barely registered on the various measures of wages
growth.
not wanting to pay
workers more, is a little like the “Paradox of Thrift” – it makes sense for an
individual in uncertain times to save and not spend as much, but if everyone
does it, uncertain times turn into bad times.
As argued here previously, business is holding a very
determined wages strike.
Corporate leaders don’t need FWC permission to do it,
they just have to hang together to keep a lid on wage rises. In the process,
they’re shooting themselves in the foot.
For the Coalition
government, the result is a record of economic failure.
Friday 8 March 2019
Something to think about - Part One
September 2015 to January 2019 |
8501.0 - Retail Trade, Australia, Jan 2019 |
* All images from Twitter.
Wednesday 4 July 2018
Government of Nauru: Turnbull's will comes first
Image of Nauru at abc.net.au |
The small island Republic of Nauru’s official motto is "God's Will First”.
I strongly
suspect that Nauru has unofficially changed it to “Turnbull's Will First” ahead of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s
visit to the Pacific Islands Forum, with an eye turned towards protecting annual funding coming from the
Australian Government.
Australia is
Nauru’s largest trade, investment and development assistance partner, providing
development
assistance worth $26.1 million in 2017-18 and $25.9 million in 2018-19.
That particular
multimillion dollar revenue stream is
said to financially benefit some of Nauru’s most powerful families.
So banning
ABC employees from entering the country would have been an easy decision for
the Government of Nauru to make given the current Australian prime minister’s well known
animus towards the Australian Public Broadcasting Corporation.
Statement from Republic
of Nauru – Update for media attending Sept 2018 Pacific Islands Forum
The
Government of Nauru looks forward to welcoming media from across the Pacific
region and further afield, to cover the upcoming Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in
September. Due to very limited accommodation we have had to place restrictions
on the number of people from all sectors who are able to attend, including
government delegations and the media. There has been no restrictions placed on
media attendance for any reason other than this indisputable fact of
accommodation and facility availability. We are confident that a wide cross
section of media will attend, as they have for previous forums. Of course, as
is the case for anyone entering Nauru – and indeed every other sovereign nation
– all are expected to abide by their visa guidelines (in this instance a
specific PIF media visa will be issued with no associated fees), respect the
laws of our country, and not engage in activities that cause or encourage
disruption or civil unrest.
We
recognise that media from Australia have a unique interest in Nauru due to our
partnership with Australia as part of its border security operations. While we
will ensure that some media representatives from Australia will attend along
with other Pacific and wider media, we will be requesting they follow all
guidelines and directions of authorities in order to ensure the safety and
security of citizens and residents of Nauru. There are unique security and
safety issues in Nauru that must be considered and respected, and the
Government reserves the right to revoke the visa of any person that breaches
their visa conditions.
We
are ensuring that along with other media from Australia, at least one
Australian TV news outlet will be able to cover the PIF and footage will be
available to other outlets who are not able to attend.
It
is important that media representatives travelling with national political
leaders or heads of state – specifically from Australia and New Zealand – are
aware that they still must apply for accreditation and an appropriate visa
through the website of the Government of Nauru, as per normal procedures. No
person can enter Nauru without a valid visa and anyone attempting to do so,
irrespective of who they are travelling with, will not be allowed entry.
Accreditation applications have now closed as per PIF guidelines, however
applications will still be accepted until 5pm Nauru Time on July 3, 2018, from
any representatives who wish to travel to PIF as part of a ‘pool’ with their
national leader and has not yet applied. Again, these spots are limited
(particularly by accommodation) and will be included in (not separate from) the
overall media numbers which are still to be finalised. Media that have been
issued accreditation will be advised soon, as will those applicants who we
could not accommodate.
It
should be noted that no representative from the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation will be granted a visa to enter Nauru under any circumstances, due
to this organisation’s blatant interference in Nauru’s domestic politics prior
to the 2016 election, harassment of and lack of respect towards our President
in Australia, false and defamatory allegations against members of our
Government, and continued biased and false reporting about our country. It is
our right, as it is the right of every nation, to choose who is allowed to
enter.
ABC News reported on 2 July 2017:
ABC News Director Gaven
Morris responded, saying the broadcaster "vigorously defends our role in
doing independent reporting on our region".
"The ABC does not
intend to vacate our position in the media pool covering the Pacific Islands
Forum in Nauru," Mr Morris said.
"The Nauruan
Government should not be allowed to dictate who fills the positions in an
Australian media pool.
"It can hardly
claim it is 'welcoming the media' if it dictates who that media will be and
bans Australia's public broadcaster."
For the cameras Malcolm Bligh Turnbull pretends he has no power to intercede.
If he so wished Malcolm Turnbull can make the High Commissioner earn her generous salary by having her present a formal request from the Australian foreign minister to allow ABC jounalists and a camera crew to attend the Pacific Islands Forum.
However, as it is highly likely that Nauru's ban is only an anticipation of Turnbull's wishes I won't be holding my breath.
For the cameras Malcolm Bligh Turnbull pretends he has no power to intercede.
Even if Turnbull didn't want to make a personal approach to the President of Nauru - for heaven's sake - we have gone to the expense of maintaining a High Commission on that 21 km² slip of an island since August 2009..@TurnbullMalcolm: It'll be regrettable not having media at the Pacific Islands Forum, but we must respect Nauru's sovereignty to determine who comes into their country. We support press freedom, but it is a matter for Nauru.— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) July 3, 2018
MORE: https://t.co/DfiGD6qzMe #SkyLiveNow pic.twitter.com/kHxeNH0l8B
If he so wished Malcolm Turnbull can make the High Commissioner earn her generous salary by having her present a formal request from the Australian foreign minister to allow ABC jounalists and a camera crew to attend the Pacific Islands Forum.
However, as it is highly likely that Nauru's ban is only an anticipation of Turnbull's wishes I won't be holding my breath.
Thursday 22 February 2018
So Prime Minister Turnbull has been bitiching again about the ABC's reporting
It's also disingenuous to talk about a 30 per cent rate when so few
companies pay anything like that thanks to tax legislation that allows them to
avoid paying corporate tax. Exclusive analysis released by ABC today reveals one
in five of Australia's top companies has paid zero tax for the past three years.
On that same
day the House
of Representatives Hansard recorded these mentions:
Mr THISTLETHWAITE
(Kingsford Smith) (10:12): ………All of these hardworking Australians would be
thrilled to know—very pleased to know—that the ABC has uncovered that about one in five Australian
companies pay no company tax whatsoever in this country. Yes, that's right: 380
of Australia's largest companies pay absolutely no income tax at all—a big
doughnut; a big fat zero. They include airlines, banks, financial
service companies, mining, energy, clothing, steel, and telecommunications
companies. There's even a condom manufacturer. That's rather appropriate, given
what they've just done to the Australian taxpayer in paying no tax at all
during the course of the last couple of years…..
Mr THISTLETHWAITE
(Kingsford Smith) (13:49): As mums and dads pack up the kids, send them off to
school and head off to work; as pensioners struggle to put the air-conditioner
on because of rising electricity costs; and as students face increases in their
fees because of cuts to TAFE and cuts to funding for education—these
hard-working Australians, as they head off to jobs and study today, would be
pleased to know that the ABC has uncovered that one in five Australian
companies pay absolutely no company tax in this country. That's right, 380 of Australia's
largest companies paid absolutely zero company tax over the course of the last
three years. They include airlines, energy companies, mining companies,
clothing companies, banks, insurance companies and a manufacturer of
condoms—which is highly appropriate, given the rogering that they've just given
Australian hardworking taxpayers by paying no tax. Now, given that these
companies pay no corporate tax, what is the response of the Turnbull
government? The response of the Turnbull government is to give them a tax cut.
These companies are struggling so much that we're going to give them a tax cut!
Yes, that's right: 380 of the largest companies that pay no tax will get a tax
cut, despite the fact that they're increasing taxes for Australian workers by
putting up the Medicare levy. We won't cop it. Labor will oppose these tax cuts
and we'll stand up for average, hard-working, battling Australians……
Mr TURNBULL
(Wentworth—Prime Minister) (14:03): I thank the honourable member for her
question. The government is supporting and delivering lower business taxes
because we know they will result in more investment and more jobs. Company tax
is ultimately a tax on workers. When nearly nine in 10 Australians work for
private business, surely it is obvious that it's in the national interest to
support the companies that employ the overwhelming majority of Australians.
But, instead of supporting policies that will create jobs and grow wages, the
opposition is busy peddling the myth that business does not care about the
level of tax and doesn't in fact pay tax. I'm not sure where the $68 billion of
company tax receipts came from, but, according to the Labor Party, companies
don't pay tax. The Labor Party wants to increase taxes; the government wants to
reduce them. But we do not believe that paying tax is optional. Every
Australian and every business that makes a profit in Australia must pay their
fair share of tax. You'd think that was common sense, but not for the
opposition. Like everything the opposition leader does, he calls for action one
minute and then opposes it the next. He called for action against multinational
tax avoidance and then he voted against some of the toughest anti-avoidance
laws in the world. If this isn't clear enough for the members opposite, we'd be
happy to arrange a briefing with officials from the Australian Taxation Office.
We have introduced and, no thanks to the Labor Party, passed through the
parliament some of the toughest multinational tax avoidance laws in the world.
At that briefing from the ATO, I am sure that those distinguished officials
will be able to provide a tutorial on the difference between revenue and profit
because members opposite either don't understand the difference or they're now
calling for businesses to be taxed on revenue—not profit— even if the business
makes a loss. We saw that
they were busily retweeting the article—one of the most confused and poorly
researched articles I've seen on this topic on the ABC's website. Of
course, the ABC is an enterprise that understands profit and loss.
Opposition members
interjecting—
Mr TURNBULL: It does! It
understands taxes; they're recipients of them. They receive them—taxpayers'
funds. They understand the difference: the hard work of investing and
struggling and losing money one year and then being able to offset it against
profit the next—or not. No, the ABC has the same understanding of the
commercial world as does the opposition. (Time expired)
The Australian
Financial Review scenting blood after the prime minister’s
criticism went to print with this disingenuous take on 15 February 2018:
Both premises fatally
expose their author's innumeracy. The first is demonstrably false. Freely
available data produced by the Australian Taxation Office show that 32 of Australia's 50 largest
companies paid $19.33 billion in company tax in FY16 (FY17 figures are
not yet available). The other 18 paid nothing. Why? They lost money, or were
carrying over previous losses.
I’m sure North Coast Voices readers will quickly
notice that Alberici was citing statistics for a baseline of around 1,900
companies and the ‘Fin Review’ columnist was citing a baseline of 50 companies -
so of course the number of companies paying no tax to the number of companies
paying tax is going to differ between the two baselines.
Reading the full text there does not appear to be any factuall inaccuracies in the Alberici article being complained about.
Reading the full text there does not appear to be any factuall inaccuracies in the Alberici article being complained about.
Meanwhile ABC News withdrew the online version of
the economic analysis
and updated Alberici’s
companion article in order to provide further
information and context.
The companion
article still contains those same statistics:
Analysis by the ABC
reveals Qantas is not alone — about 380, or one in five, of Australia's largest companies have paid
no tax for at least the past three years.
However,
these opening lines written by Alberici in the article “There's no case for a corporate
tax cut when one in five of Australia's top companies don't pay it” on
14 February are now missing in action as this analysis gently sinks to the
bottom of the Internet:
There is no compelling
evidence that giving the country's biggest companies a tax cut sees that money
passed on to workers in the form of higher wages.
Treasury modelling
relies on theories that belie the reality that's playing out around the world.
Since the peak of the
commodities boom in 2011-12, profit margins have risen to levels not seen since
the early 2000s but wages growth has been slower than at any time since the
1960s.
The Guardian reported on 16 February that:
Guardian Australia understands ABC News management has been in crisis meetings for two days after the prime minister attacked the articles in question time and then wrote formal letters of complaint to management.
The Guardian reported on 16 February that:
Guardian Australia understands ABC News management has been in crisis meetings for two days after the prime minister attacked the articles in question time and then wrote formal letters of complaint to management.
I suspect
that what Turnbull took umbrage to in the first place was the fact that one article took a stronger position on
why corporate tax cuts were not good for the economy or wages growth and, therefore
were unlikely to benefit workers and
their families and, the other article which is still online did not address this aspect of government taxation policy.
So he set out to shoot the message down and be damned to the fate of the messenger.
Of course in attempting this Turnbull created a Steisand Effect With A Twist - ensuring that the full text of “There's no case for a corporate tax cut when one in five of Australia's top companies don't pay it” has been copied onto websites he can't bully and the article's analysis is still being discussed by voters.
So he set out to shoot the message down and be damned to the fate of the messenger.
Of course in attempting this Turnbull created a Steisand Effect With A Twist - ensuring that the full text of “There's no case for a corporate tax cut when one in five of Australia's top companies don't pay it” has been copied onto websites he can't bully and the article's analysis is still being discussed by voters.
BACKGROUND
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/...abc-turnbull.../story-fna045gd-1226869241476?...
Jan 26, 2018 - COMMUNICATIONS Minister
Malcolm Turnbull says ABC board members who do not want to
get involved in ensuring news content on the public broadcaster is accurate and
impartial should get off the board. Revealing he receives hundreds of complaints about
the ABC each week, MrTurnbull said “the ..
Q&A:
Malcolm Turnbull phones ABC boss Mark Scott to complain about crude Tony Abbott
tweet
26 August 2015
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/...turnbull...abc.../ff6ad001ced93bb9c40eee1f4c839...
Dec 2, 2013 - THE minister in charge of
the ABC, Malcolm Turnbull, rang the broadcasters boss Mark Scott last
week to tell him he had made an “error of judgment” in teaming with the
Guardian to run revelations that the Indonesian presidents phone was bugged.
https://delimiter.com.au/.../watch-turnbull-implies-complained-abc-failed-nbn-coverag...
Feb 4,
2016 - Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull appears to have implied
that he made the samecomplaint to ABC management that he has
previously made in public before the 2013 Federal Election, stating that the
broadcaster had "failed" to provide balanced coverage of the
competing National Broadband Network ...
Australian
Tax Office, 2015-16 Report of Entity Tax Information
This report contains the total income, taxable income and tax payable of
over 2000 corporate tax entities for the 2015-16 year. This report also
includes separate lists of entities whose information was not available by the
cut-off date to produce the Report of Entity Tax Information for 2013-14 and
2014-15.
Labels:
corporations,
economy,
government policy,
Our ABC,
statistics,
taxation,
Turnbull Government
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